The Enemy Interview - April 2009
by Jodie Humphries
Thanks to the newly renamed 02 Academy, I was not only given the chance to review The Enemy live, but I was also given the opportunity to interview the band. A band that have gone from playing The Louisiana, to Academy 2, to headlining the 02 Academy. The Enemy, if you don’t know, are Tom Clarke (vocals/guitar), Liam Watts (drums), and Andy Hopkins (bass).
The interview was supposed to take place at the 02 Academy, but at the last moment the location was changed, and a mad panic assured as I desperately tried to find the new location, and not miss my opportunity to interview a band whose CD sits amongst my collection.
I arrived, only a few moments late to be greeted by Huw from Mission, who work with 02, and led me to meet the band, who were relaxing playing pool (or it could have been snooker – I was so nervous I didn’t notice). Settled in the next room with Tom, Liam and Andy, the interview started. This may be a charting band, but they’re just every day lads, doing what they enjoy, there was not a trace of arrogance that you may have expected to see with the band, which could have made the experience unbearable.
As they yawned away, the guys started by saying they were “Tired, as it was the last interview of the day.” I started by asking how the tour’s been going, to which Tom replied, “Really well, a lot better than we expected because no-one’s heard the second album yet, so it’s going out there and playing songs that people haven’t heard, but the reactions have been very good.” The night before they played Bristol, The Enemy had played Swindon Oasis, which Tom said was “A good venue. It’s like a big sports complex, but it was a brilliant gig.”
As we chatted about the venues, I mentioned that I’m going to see Kasabian in Swindon in June, to which Tom said, “We’ve played with them before, at Leeds Refectory where The Who did Live at Leeds. We did a tour in Japan, and ended up playing a massive baseball stadium with them. They’re one of the best live bands I’ve seen, absolutely amazing.” Those who have paid attention will know that The Enemy, along with Kasabian have been confirmed as support for Oasis later on this year, but I wanted to know what the guys ideal line-up would be. Without any hesitation, Tom replied, “Probably, The Enemy, Kasabian, and Oasis to be completely honest with you. We’ve said that for quite a few years, and obviously it’s happened, and it’s just an amazing line-up.”
The support acts for this particular tour, are Kid British, and Twisted Wheel, I was interested to know if The Enemy chose these bands as support themselves. Tom said, “Yeah we chose them. Kid British was a tip off from a mate. I think they’re a really good band, totally different from us, but I think that’s the point with support acts, you show your fans a different type of music Twisted Wheel are an absolutely great Manchester band, they just epitomize everything that’s great about Manchester music, and without it being post-Libertines bollocks, which is what it seems to be coming out of Manchester recently. There’s a few bands, liked Twisted Wheel and LowLine who are proper Manchester bands, it’s an honour to have them on tour with us.”
Every band member has a highlight of being in a band, for Tom, “The best thing, this bands biggest achievement in my view, is not number one records, or platinum discs, not half a million records or a Q award, it’s being able to go home at the end of the day and half a pint with your two best mates and know that no-one has really changed. We’re the same lads.” On the subject of Tom saying they’re the same lads, I wanted to know if their fans help keep them grounded, “Yeah definitely,” Tom said, “I think most of them know we’re normal lads, and you know, we have a laugh with them.” As The Enemy are a well known band, I asked if they can still walk down the street without getting approached. Tom said, “People know who you are, but that’s up to you if you think it’s a problem or not. We all make a point of making time for people, they’re the fans, they buy the records and put a roof over your head.” Liam said, “People are surprised to see you at times. If you need something from the shop, you have to go and buy it.”
It seems that fans are very important to The Enemy; they recognise that without them, they wouldn’t be anywhere. Some bands get fans that go to some extremes, so I asked what the most extreme reaction they’ve ever had from a fan was. “Somebody licked his face,” Andy said about Liam, to which Liam replied, “I don’t think that happened. I don’t think I’d let a fan lick my face.” This then led to Andy asking, “Did somebody ask to lick your face?” Realising that he might have imagined things, Andy quickly said, “There was a girl who dislocated her knee, as she walked up to us.” Tom added, “She proper hit the deck.” About fans, he said, “We just have a chat with most of our fans to be honest, if it’s after a gig; we have a drink with them. I think it’s massively important to respect the people who put a roof over your head. When we won the Q Award, we gave it away to a lad in the crowd, at a Manchester gig, because the band is their band, and the album is their album. I just think, there’s no sort of putting yourself on a pedestal. The minute you start believe your own hype, and your bigger and more important, the day starts to fall apart from my point of view. I’ve got a massive respect for our fans; they’re exactly the same as us. We always make the time to chat to then.”
Talking of albums, it’s a matter of weeks until, ‘Music for the People’, their new album is released (27th April). Tom said about the release, “Yeah it’s always an interesting time. The pre-orders are better than the last album so you know it’s looking like it’s in pretty good stead to do what the last album did. I think the interesting bit when you release an album, is that all the songs that we’ve written ourselves, suddenly become the fans’ songs. I really enjoy it.” As the last album, ‘We’ll Live and Die in These Towns’ did so well, I wondered if the band felt any pressure on them for this new album. Tom said, “I don’t think so at all really. We just wanted to make an album that we thought was better than the first one, and we’ve done that, we’re massively proud of it. I think it’s a great album, and really that’s more important than chart success.”
As the main focus of LMS is unsigned bands, I asked the band what advice they can offer unsigned bands. Tom said, “The best piece of advice I ever got was off a geezer called John Dawkins, which was simply ‘believe in yourselves, because if you don’t believe in yourselves, then no-one else will’. It’s still the best piece of advice I’ve ever been given, just know that you can do it. If you’re good, stay in the knowledge that you’re good. Don’t take any shit, and don’t change for anyone, be yourself.” While Liam said, “It’s not all about travelling to London and paying to play in a venue.” Andy said, “When you do get management, get someone that you trust, there’s no point just going with anyone. Don’t just go with anyone, you have to work them out first.” The final bit of advice was offered by Tom, who said, “I think more than anything, be very wary of record companies because a bad record company will prevent you from breaking. The best bit of advice is just to believe in yourself and no know that you’re good and stick with it.” As I’ve already said, I was nervous about interviewing The Enemy, not that I had any reason to be, so I wanted to know if they’ve had any moments when they’ve been star-struck, Tom said, “Not particularly, I don’t really do star-struck. I’m crap with famous people; I don’t know who anyone is. I knew who Paul Weller was when I met him. It’s impossible to get star-struck with Paul Weller because he’s the nicest bloke in the world, you meet him, and after two minutes you feel like you’ve known him forever. He’s just an absolutely lovely bloke – I can’t say enough nice things about him.” Andy said, “We met The Rolling Stones. We knew them from photo’s and everything, but it was like ‘Jesus’, we had out photo taken with them, but they had loads of security around them. You can’t really get close and have a conversation with them.” While Tom added, “It’s quite weird; I grew up listening to The Rolling Stones, because my Mum had an amazing vinyl collection. We met them just as we came off stage at the 02 and they were going on, it’s pretty bizarre, but I wouldn’t describe it as star-struck, just, ‘this is a bizarre moment in life’. They’re one of the few great bands who have stood the test of time, in the fact they’re still touring. I think they’re a good template for bands to look at today, in terms of what they’ve achieved. If you look at how bands rush albums out these days, with just a year between them, and then you look at The Stones, they’ve got an amazing back catalogue, and they’ve just played the long game, with is massively important. Bands nowadays just don’t realise that.” I asked if that’s where they’d like to be a few years down the line, to which Tom replied laughing, “I don’t think I want glittery shirts with sequins, I wouldn’t mind the income they’re getting.”
As a band in the public eye, The Enemy are going to get criticism at some point, there’s no escaping from it, so I asked them how they deal with it. Tom said, “I don’t really give a shit about it to be completely honest with you. I actually actively look for the bad reviews because I enjoy reading them. I think it keeps you on the ground and keeps you rooted, when you’ve got people blowing smoke up your arse twenty four hours a day.” One person, who has publicly criticised the band, is Alex Zane. On the subject of that, Tom said, “The whole thing with that, was he was a bit of a prat. We made him look like a prat, and he took it into the public domain and lost very ungracefully with him being forced to hand us XFM’s Best Band Award. I don’t know, I just don’t have enough time for that. It’s just insignificances that I could do without in daily life. There’s so much good stuff going on to focus on. Whatever – he started it,” he added on the end as the band laughed, showing that they didn’t take it to heart.
For those who don’t know, before being signed to Warner Music, The Enemy were signed to the legendary label, Stiff. I wanted to know how they felt about that at the time. Tom said, “It was just a massive honour to even be involved with them, they hadn’t put anything out for twenty years. The last thing they’d put out was ‘Irish Rover by The Pogues’. It was just a huge, huge honour to revive such a legendary label.” I then wanted to know if they check sites like Ebay for their first single released on Stiff, ’40 Days and 40 Nights’. Tom said, “The last one I saw – which is going back about a year and a half, went for about 65 quid, which is completely mental.” You’d think that in some ways the band would be chuffed, but they’re so loyal to their fans, that Liam said, “I don’t like to see people getting ripped off. If it was genuinely collectable, then that’s sound, but I remember seeing a pair of drum sticks we’d signed with a reserve of a 100 quid. Luckily it didn’t go, because a pair of drum sticks isn’t worth a 100 quid. If someone actually wants something signed, just come down to the gig and we’ll give it to you, rather than actually paying that kind of money. If you give something to someone at a gig, you give it to them in good faith.” And Tom said, “I don’t like the idea of people paying over the odds for music. But I think a lot of that is Stiff collectors who want the last few Stiff Vinyl’s.”
Staying with buying music, I asked the band what the last CDs they bought were. Andy said, “I bought one today – The Cure.” Andy was the only one of the band who had escaped during the day and had managed to find Fopp! Tom said, “The last one I bought was, ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust’ (David Bowie), actually I didn’t buy it, Ollie, our sound guy got if for me on vinyl. It’s one of my favourite albums, and I didn’t have it on vinyl, so he got it for me. Classic album.” While Liam said, “I can’t even remember,” when Tom asked him for me, but then Tom wanted to know if it was Spice Girls greatest hits, to which Liam never did actually reply, so you never know. Following up that question, I asked what the first CDs they ever bought was. Tom said, “Mine was Greatest Hits of Queen, the first compact disc I ever purchased.” Liam said, “I don’t ever remember things like that.” And Andy said, “I always used to buy compilations, cos I didn’t see the point of buying albums. All the Now CDs was probably my first.” When Andy said this, Tom said, “My first experience of music was completely different, I used to wait until my Mum and Dad went out, then I used to go through their vinyl collection and put vinyls on. I’m a big fan of actual albums you know, listening to an A side of an album, then having that 30 seconds when you turn over the album, then have the B side. When I’m at home, I only listen to things on vinyl, I just think all my best albums are best listened to like that, like ‘Hotel California’ (Eagles), ‘Abbey Road’ (Beatles), and ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ (Pink Floyd). If you take tracks off them, they’re good, but they’re better if you listen to them as a full album. I think people should make the space, it sounds so much better on vinyl.”
Moving back to the tour, I asked if there have been any times on stage where it’s all gone wrong. Andy said, “We’ve had the sound go when we were supporting The Paddingtons.” While Tom filled in the story by saying, “About three years ago we had a power cut – it was alright though, we just did a drum solo and got the whole audience clapping. I think it was for about 8 minutes.” Andy added, “That’s a long time just stood there not knowing what’s happening.” Other than that it seems to have gone well on stage for The Enemy, as Tom said, “I think in the last 3 years, I’ve only broken three strings on stage. We’ve never really had anything go tits up.” Every band has a highlight when they’re on tour, for Tom, “It’s meeting new people and being in different places all the time and having the opportunity to meet really interesting people where ever you go. It’s a massive buzz.” While Andy said, “Being on stage is amazing.” When going out and performing in front of hundreds, even thousands of people, I wanted to know if the band gets nervous. Tom said, “Never really done nerves.” While Andy said, “The only time I’ve ever been nervous, is when I used to work in House of Fraser and I’d got into this band, I knew we were good, so I went round telling everyone to come down to Cox’s Yard, it’s this place in Stratford that holds about 200 people, so I rounded up about 30 people saying ‘we’re pretty good, come and listen’. I really bigged us up, then I got there and was like ‘shit’, when they were going ‘come on then’ I was dead nervous, but the gig went well and they loved it, so it was alright in the end.”
Again, every band has a favourite venue, Tom said his, “Used to be The Astoria in London, but that’s sadly been knocked down now, I think its one of the best venues in the UK, and it’s unfortunate it’s gone. I think they’re turning it into a shopping centre, which is exactly what central London needs, more shops. It’s a massive shame. And Birmingham Academy is always a brilliant place to play, but I think they’re looking at moving that.” To which Liam added, “They’re stupid if they do.”
The tour is a huge one, with the band playing in many towns that at times are forgotten. Many people in Bristol have found lately that their favourite bands seem to be missing the Bristol area completely. On the subject of bands’ missing towns out, Tom said, “A lot of bands do miss Bristol, and a lot don’t go to Swindon, and a lot of places we’re going to on this tour, which is why we’ve chosen specific places. I think it’s really important to play everywhere. People go and play Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle, which is fine, but there are actually people in other towns who love buying music and going to gigs.” While Andy chipped in, “We did Oban.” Which Tom explained, “Yeah this tiny little village in Scotland, where there had only been like two gigs. I think it’s really important to go to these places, because you normally find that you get a better reaction when you go there.”
Finally asking if all the dates on the huge tour they’re doing is sold out, Tom said, “I think most of them by the night have sold out. The few that haven’t usually sell out on the door, but I think it’s actually nicer when it doesn’t sell out, cos people who turn up on the night when it’s sold out, will buy from touts.” To which Andy adds, “So many people in Birmingham by from touts. It’s ridiculous.” Once The Enemy have finished their extensive tour of the UK, they’re off to 5 Irish dates, and 5 European dates.
To finish the interview, the final words go to Tom, “A massive thanks to everyone who’s come on this tour so far and made it what they have. It’s been an absolutely amazing tour, which is down to the fans, so thanks again to them.”
www.myspace.com/theenemycoventry
